The actor, 70, decide to express himself because of the anti-Semitism his young son, Dylan, experienced in Southern Europe on a family vacation. Now just 14, Dylan was driven to tears by a man who was “hurling insults” at him – all because was wearing a Star of David.

Douglas had to tell his son that he had just had his “first taste of anti-Semitism.”

Michael’s mother, Diane, is not Jewish, though his father, veteran leading man Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch), is; “While some Jews believe that not having a Jewish mother makes me not Jewish, I have learned the hard way that those who hate do not make such fine distinctions,” said Michael.